Reliable and Proper Service Shop for Feista ST around Seattle area

I have a 2014 Fiesta ST and I need to have my transmission looked at as it has minor problems with smooth shifting. Probably the clutch needs adjustment or maybe something not ok with the synchronizers. I don't understand any of it.

Unfortunately the Ford Service here in Seattle area is really horrible. None of the folks have any idea of a car called Feists ST, let alone know to how to debug problems with a manual transmission. Today I got really pissed of since Lakewood Ford asked me to wait 3 months to have some technician available to have it looked at. Also they do not have a technician who can work on performance cars or manual transmissions.

Ford customer care was not helpful either. They just asked to go to a different dealer. Basically all service centers here are basically misfits who cannot talk reasonable technical details.

Where do you ST owners ( Focus or Fiesta ) take your cars to? I want a reliable service technical who understands these cars and provide real solutions. I am sick of having to deal with Ford Dealer Service shops here in the Seattle area. I am willing to drive ~100 miles radius to get proper solutions.

I live between Seattle and Portland, closer to Portland. Lakewood Ford was on my list of possible places from which to purchase the car, and it sounds like I'm glad I didn't. I'm driving to Portland tomorrow for servicing, as I won't let the local Ford dealer even look at my car. .. The other place in the Seattle area I considered was Bickford Ford in Snohomish. .. have you called them?

I have a 2014 Fiesta ST and I need to have my transmission looked at as it has minor problems with smooth shifting. Probably the clutch needs adjustment or maybe something not ok with the synchronizers. I don't understand any of it.

Unfortunately the Ford Service here in Seattle area is really horrible. None of the folks have any idea of a car called Feists ST, let alone know to how to debug problems with a manual transmission. Today I got really pissed of since Lakewood Ford asked me to wait 3 months to have some technician available to have it looked at. Also they do not have a technician who can work on performance cars or manual transmissions.

Ford customer care was not helpful either. They just asked to go to a different dealer. Basically all service centers here are basically misfits who cannot talk reasonable technical details.

Where do you ST owners ( Focus or Fiesta ) take your cars to? I want a reliable service technical who understands these cars and provide real solutions. I am sick of having to deal with Ford Dealer Service shops here in the Seattle area. I am willing to drive ~100 miles radius to get proper solutions.

Thanks in advance,

Agas

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Hi Agas,

Once you have a dealer in mind, please let me know, along with your mileage. I'll be able to look into some additional assistance about your concern. Have you checked our Dealer Locate tool?

I do not know which a good service shop is good ( which was what I was trying to find out from other owners ). I am going to just select few from the list :
a. Horizon Ford
b. Bickford Ford, Snohomish
c. Harris Ford, Lynwood

- I just want some 'field service advisor' to take a look at my problem when I am there and provide me an initial diagnosis. I am sure it is a simple adjustment of some sort. If I know how to do it, I would have done it myself.
- I want to schedule a 10K mile service along with this one ( My vehicle mileage is ~9600 miles )

I live between Seattle and Portland, closer to Portland. Lakewood Ford was on my list of possible places from which to purchase the car, and it sounds like I'm glad I didn't. I'm driving to Portland tomorrow for servicing, as I won't let the local Ford dealer even look at my car. .. The other place in the Seattle area I considered was Bickford Ford in Snohomish. .. have you called them?

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- Please avoid Lakewood Ford. They just want to sell you the car and not service it later.
- I tried calling Bickford, the service customer rep told me they I cannot bring in the car for service if I have not bought it from them.
- Can you tell me where you are getting your Fiesta ST serviced? I can even drive to Portland to get a good check-up.

This is the problem with having a performance car from a company which has the most pathetic customer support. I am sure this wouldn't be the case if I had bought a Subaru. Thanks for the reply.

I'm nowhere near the area you are concerned with, but I wanted to give my experience with Ford so far in regards to having work done.

I have had my first service and the Mountune induction kit installed at the same time, and an oil change since then at my local Ford dealer without an issue. The induction kit they hadn't seen or heard of before I went in to talk about install, but the tech took my info and got back to me the next day after doing some research and was ready to install it whenever I liked. The dealer local to me, where I had the work done, isn't the one where I bought my car either.

It sucks to hear you're having such a hard time getting your car looked at, but I can assure you that your problem doesn't exist everywhere. I'd suggest sending a PM to the Ford reps on the forum (Username: FordService) and I'm sure they will help you figure something out.

Edit: grammar
Also didn't see the reply from FordService before my post, but hopefully they can assist.

I have a 2014 Fiesta ST and I need to have my transmission looked at as it has minor problems with smooth shifting. Probably the clutch needs adjustment or maybe something not ok with the synchronizers. I don't understand any of it.

Unfortunately the Ford Service here in Seattle area is really horrible. None of the folks have any idea of a car called Feists ST, let alone know to how to debug problems with a manual transmission. Today I got really pissed of since Lakewood Ford asked me to wait 3 months to have some technician available to have it looked at. Also they do not have a technician who can work on performance cars or manual transmissions.

Ford customer care was not helpful either. They just asked to go to a different dealer. Basically all service centers here are basically misfits who cannot talk reasonable technical details.

Where do you ST owners ( Focus or Fiesta ) take your cars to? I want a reliable service technical who understands these cars and provide real solutions. I am sick of having to deal with Ford Dealer Service shops here in the Seattle area. I am willing to drive ~100 miles radius to get proper solutions.

Thanks in advance,

Agas

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How many miles on the car? Has it always done this or has it gotten worse with the colder weather?

Ask the dealer to let you test drive another Fiesta ST as a comparison.

- Please avoid Lakewood Ford. They just want to sell you the car and not service it later.
- I tried calling Bickford, the service customer rep told me they I cannot bring in the car for service if I have not bought it from them.
- Can you tell me where you are getting your Fiesta ST serviced? I can even drive to Portland to get a good check-up.

This is the problem with having a performance car from a company which has the most pathetic customer support. I am sure this wouldn't be the case if I had bought a Subaru. Thanks for the reply.

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If this is a Ford warranty and not a dealership warranty they're obligated to look at and work on the car, ALL Ford dealerships are required to provide warranty service on any car under factory warranty regardless of where it was purchased.

I do not know which a good service shop is good ( which was what I was trying to find out from other owners ). I am going to just select few from the list :
a. Horizon Ford
b. Bickford Ford, Snohomish
c. Harris Ford, Lynwood

- I just want some 'field service advisor' to take a look at my problem when I am there and provide me an initial diagnosis. I am sure it is a simple adjustment of some sort. If I know how to do it, I would have done it myself.
- I want to schedule a 10K mile service along with this one ( My vehicle mileage is ~9600 miles )

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Thanks for following up. I want to loop in your customer service manager, but they're assigned by dealer. Once you have one picked out, please let me know. All dealers are independently owned and operated, and I don't have access to scores and ratings from customers, so I'm unable to make suggestions.

Thank you for your feedback. It helps to understand the landscape from invested ST owners.

I just want to leave some feedback about my experience in the past two weeks for other people in the region to be aware.
- It appears Ford Service is varied from region to region as your reply. Let me give an example. I called 'Lakewood Ford, Lakewood, WA' and asked them if I can have a chat with the Service Advisor for a few minutes before I bring the vehicle in. The lady who answered was very rude and at first was reluctant that I speak to her and not the service advisor. When I told her about the problem, I could see that she did not know anything about what I was talking about. She told me she will have the Service Advisor call me. He never called me back and after repeated attempts, I gave up and called Ford Customer Care. Even there I had mixed experience. Anyway, the Service Advisor left me a VM after a week saying that I will need to schedule something in April ( 4 months out ) if I need him to take a look at the car. This is ridiculous. If I ever wanted something installed like a sports exhaust like you did, this would be impossible here.
- My experience with Ford Customer Service. Some folks are helpful, some are completely rude and act as if they did you a favor by selling you their car. For example, on the first day the rep was a gentleman. After 30 mins of conversation, basically this is what he told me. Ford Service Centers and Dealers are completely independent and Ford Motor Company has nothing to do with them or can they give me suggestions for good service. And he told me that I need to find some Service Center in the country which is willing to service my car and if I cannot find one, then basically Ford Motor Company is not responsible for it. I am on my own. And the ridiculous part is if I cannot get it serviced in a Ford Service Center then my warranty is void. I am refraining venting my frustration with this person. I called the customer care again and this time I reached somebody else who was helpful in trying to reach somebody at Lakewood, but ultimately she called me and said that Lakewood is not responding to her calls and she will keep trying.
- I also called a dealer called Bickford Ford in Snohmish, WA, after suggestion from Ford Racing division. The lady who answered there was also extremely rude. She did not want to even hear what my problem was. She said that if I had not bought the car from them, then they will not even take a look at it. Are these pretentious people doing me a charity. I am paying money for their service.

My car has less than 10K miles. It has appeared to have started happening since a couple of months. Basically just slightly harder shifting - especially 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I have been driving a manual transmission for 10 years and I ensure clutch is fully disengaged before shifting. It appears like some minor adjustment is needed to the synchros, or some minor adjustment to the clutch or it could be just simple as transmission oil is low. Unfortunately, I am not so technically adept to understand these things under the hood. Somebody with some experience could just drive it for 5 mins and gauge the problem. And this is all I want.

I want to understand if Ford Customer Care can be OBJECTIVELY helpful in this matter. As I have been on the phone now for more than 5 hours in total with Ford Customer Care and I haven't found the solution I am looking for.

If you can provide me a list of 5 service stations which are reliable within 1000 miles of 98101, I will take care of it myself. ALL I NEED is a list of 'RELIABLE AND KNOWLEDGE SERVICE CENTERS' who understand who a CUSTOMER is. Not incompetent nincompoops like Lakewood Ford or Bickford Ford. Infact I think all of them around the Seattle area are unprofessional and incompetent. Ford Company did not give me the car for free. I paid the sticker price for your car. If Ford Company does not understand Customer Support, then you should learn it from better companies in the US.

I want to understand if Ford Customer Care can be OBJECTIVELY helpful in this matter. As I have been on the phone now for more than 5 hours in total with Ford Customer Care and I haven't found the solution I am looking for.

If you can provide me a list of 5 service stations which are reliable within 1000 miles of 98101, I will take care of it myself. ALL I NEED is a list of 'RELIABLE AND KNOWLEDGE SERVICE CENTERS' who understand who a CUSTOMER is. Not incompetent nincompoops like Lakewood Ford or Bickford Ford. Infact I think all of them around the Seattle area are unprofessional and incompetent. Ford Company did not give me the car for free. I paid the sticker price for your car. If Ford Company does not understand Customer Support, then you should learn it from better companies in the US.

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Recommending a specific dealer is out of my scope since I do not have the ratings you're looking for, and am not in your area. The best way to get that information is to chat with people who've been there, like you're doing with this thread. I can escalate this to your regional customer service using one of the dealerships you've been to as a starting point, and you can discuss other dealerships with your CSM. Please send me a private message with your VIN, mileage, best daytime phone number, full name, and the name & location of one of the dealers you've been to for this concern.

I want to understand if Ford Customer Care can be OBJECTIVELY helpful in this matter. As I have been on the phone now for more than 5 hours in total with Ford Customer Care and I haven't found the solution I am looking for.

If you can provide me a list of 5 service stations which are reliable within 1000 miles of 98101, I will take care of it myself. ALL I NEED is a list of 'RELIABLE AND KNOWLEDGE SERVICE CENTERS' who understand who a CUSTOMER is. Not incompetent nincompoops like Lakewood Ford or Bickford Ford. Infact I think all of them around the Seattle area are unprofessional and incompetent. Ford Company did not give me the car for free. I paid the sticker price for your car. If Ford Company does not understand Customer Support, then you should learn it from better companies in the US.

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The problem here isn't Ford, the problem is dealership staff. This is an issue with dealerships industry wide, not just Ford.

Unfortunately you can have the best and worst service advisors on the planet sitting right next to each other at the same dealership and you'll never know it if you only deal with the bad one.

Ask co-workers and family members for suggestions, any other Ford owners you know?